Fading Shadows
by lazerbear7
Summary: A battle with a huge Grimm leaves Weiss separated from Blake, and she begins to fear for her friend's safety.


With one final blow, the huge Grimm fell dead, earth cracking apart in large chunks beneath its weight. Trees, rocks, and plumes of dirt were thrown into the sky, forcing Weiss to shield her eyes as she clambered down from the titanic corpse.

It had taken all of their effort, but the beast had fallen at last. The cost had been great, her body was battered and bruised, with no small amount of cuts too deep for her aura to heal. Her lungs clawed at the air around her, desperately trying to replace what she had lost. Every fiber of her being wanted to lay down and sleep, maybe cry a little bit, then find a mountain of food to eat, but she couldn't. There were other things that she had to do. The first thing, and heaviest on her mind, was to check on her teammate.

If Ruby and Yang had been present for the fight, it would have gone much smoother. They were elsewhere in the forest however, taking care of another objective. No one had expected that she and Blake would encounter such a dangerous beast, but once they had, it had been impossible to escape. Its huge gorilla-like body had traversed the forest too fast, whether it was swinging among the branches of massive trees, or smashing its way through smaller ones. Its thick armored plates had protected it from the brunt of the damage that they had been able to inflict, but with a single perfectly placed blow that had severed its spine from its brain, Blake had slain it.

She had never seen this kind of Grimm before, but she couldn't let the surprise overwhelm her. She had to check on her friend.

"Blake?"

Blake had managed to save her less than a second before she was crushed between the thing's fist and a tree, and Weiss didn't have time to look where she had gone. Blake had given her an opportunity to end the fight, and she had to take it. The opening her friend had created had allowed Myrtenaster to find its target perfectly. She couldn't just let that opportunity go to waste.

"Blake, where are you?"

She paused briefly, hoping to hear some response. If Blake could simply call out to her, it would make things easy. Nothing came though, and Weiss was left in the silence of the Grimm's death.

She started to feel panic intrude into her mind, making her sweat again and her breathing started to pick up pace again. Blake was around here somewhere, she had to be. Maybe she had been knocked out. If that was the case, then it would just be a matter of finding her.

Weiss dropped back to the ground, sheathing her rapier at her side and bending her knees so that she wasn't hurt. She was covered in dirt, grime, and blood. Whether is was her blood or the Grimm's, she wasn't sure. It was probably the same mixture of the two, but she tried very hard not to think about it.

The corpse of the Grimm was starting to smoke, and Weiss started to look around. Blake had to be somewhere. She had saved Weiss from being crushed in the Grimm's fist, so maybe the hands were good starting places.

The ground seemed softer than it had when they were fighting, and she could feel her legs starting to shake under her. Maybe she was more tired than she felt. It would make sense, the adrenaline in her veins would keep her going for at least a little while longer.

The corpse was large enough that it took Weiss almost half a minute to walk from the head of the beast to the end of the extended arm, and when she got there, she found nothing but upturned dirt and pieces of shattered tree trunk. No sign of Blake.

Weiss was starting to get more worried now. If she had been knocked out, she should've woken up by now. At least, if her injuries were minor. Weiss didn't walk to the other hand, she ran as quickly as her exhausted legs would carry her. As she ran, something very frightening started to appear. She blinked a few times as she ran, hoping to ward off the slowly forming tears.

Black strands of hair stuck out from the limp knuckles, making Weiss extremely worried. Had Blake been grabbed somehow? They had only seen each other for a brief second, but she had looked determined, as focused on battle as she ever was. Nothing could've touched her when she got like that, right? Nothing had ever gotten to her before, and surely no Grimm had actually hurt her, she would've been too fast, too agile for that.

Yet as Weiss got closer, the spreading pool of red liquid in the dirt seeped to tell another story. Grimm blood would have started to evaporate by now, especially if it had been an injury inflicted by Blake. As Weiss got even closer, she spied Gambol Shroud on the ground nearby, and the blade looked horribly bent out of shape. Weiss's eyes widened, and she put a final burst of energy into her run.

Blake's head was barely visible through the huge fingers, but her eyes were open, and flicked to Weiss's face. The Schnee gasped in horror, and immediately started trying to get her friend out.

"Blake! Blake, can you move? You need to help me get you out of there!"

She started trying to lift the fingers of the dead beast, but she was not the strongest of her team. The finger would barely budge, and Weiss knew that if she waited too long, rigor mortis would make this task almost impossible. Grimm bodies disintegrated quickly, but when the monster was this big, she couldn't wait for that to happen.

Blake still hadn't answered, so Weiss had to assume that she couldn't. She had to get her friend out, and get help for her.

If she was too weak to lift the fingers, she would have to cut them off. Myrtenaster wasn't designed for cutting, but if she tried, she could manage. She had to. There was no other option.

She drew the blade again, and set about the bloody work of cutting the fingers off. When the Grimm wasn't alive and fighting, it was much easier to butcher the thing. More blood splattered her front, but she didn't mind. Every now and again, she looked over to Blake again.

"Please Blake, keep your eyes open. Don't go to sleep! You need to stay awake, and I'll have you out in no time!"

Her strikes started to become sloppy as her eyes started to tear up. Blake had to be alright. She couldn't be too injured, that wouldn't be fair. Not when she had spent so long trying to make things up with Blake. When she had found out that Blake was a faunus, she had felt horrible. It was like she had found living, breathing proof against the things that she had thought all her life. They had more in common than she had ever known, she only had to sit down and talk with her.

And now her life was in danger. She couldn't die, Weiss wouldn't let her.

The first finger snapped as she sliced through the bone and tendon, and she immediately threw her weight against the finger, and let a small smile cross her face. Maybe that would be enough for getting Blake out.

The last of the dark fibrous muscles snapped, and the finger slid off, thudding heavily against the ground. Weiss eagerly climbed up onto where it had been, and looked down at Blake.

In the instant that it took to process what she saw, a crack seemed to appear in her mind, threatening to split her in two. An immense headache, worse than anything she had ever felt before, almost made her collapse.

Blake's body was twisted in ways that Weiss had never thought she would see a person, and blood was leaking out of her mouth. Almost all skin that Weiss could see was bruised, turning a deep shade of black and red. It was obvious that almost every bone in her body was broken, every limb was sticking out at unnatural angles, and the expression of pain on Blake's face was worse than Weiss could have possibly imagined.

She tried to jump down to Blake's level, but slipped on the blood, and felt her temple impact the exposed stump of bone, sending her head ringing. Her vision swam again, and this time the cause was not only tears. She didn't let herself stop though, and clamored closer to her friend.

"Blake! I…"

She tried to find the words, but they would not come. Nothing came to her mind, and she simply laid on the ground next to her friend, eyes darting up and down, searching for some sign that Blake was not as injured as she appeared. As she stared, she started to cry harder, body going into spasms, and her mind started to shut down. She couldn't think at all.

Then something brought her back.

"Weiss…"

She looked up again, and found that Blake's eyes had followed her. Her jaw was barely able to move, and it was clear that talking only caused her more pain. Weiss wanted to tell her to stop, but she couldn't.

"…please, help me."

Her voice was weak, barely able to be forced from her throat, but her eyes seemed to burn with purpose. She might not be able to move, but Weiss was sure that she was asking for something specific. There were only two possibilities of what she could be asking for, and one of them made Weiss sick. Surely she couldn't be asking for… a mercy killing?

There was no way that Blake could want Weiss to end her life, was there? No, she couldn't be. There was no way she could be doing that.

"Blake, you don't want that, right? I mean, you're in bad shape, but you can come back from this! It can't be too bad, right?"

A smile started to creep across her face again, but this one was forced. She was trying to make Blake feel better, but she knew that it was probably hopeless. She didn't want to admit it to herself though. She had so few friends, she couldn't lose any. Blake had to stay, Weiss thought too much of her.

Blake's head moved slightly, and she managed to force out more words.

"Weiss, please. I'm finished. I only wanted..."

She drew in a ragged breath.

"...to be a Huntress. Even if I live, there's no chance I'll fight again. I'd rather you do it. Please."

Weiss wanted to say no. She wanted to plead with Blake to change her mind, and to tell her about all the things she would miss. She wanted to tell Weiss about all the people she would leave behind, and about how much those people needed her.

But her body moved without her consent. Her hand slowly went for the handle of Myrtenaster again, and as much as she tried to stop it, she couldn't. She knew the reason. It was because she knew that Blake was right.

Her whole future had been to fight, to make things better in the world, and there was no way that she would be able to do that in a way that would satisfy her from a wheelchair. She would get a wheelchair if she was lucky. With injuries like what she had, Weiss knew that there were other, far worse fates that would likely await her.

The metal point of Myrtenaster found its way to the left of Blake's chest, and her tears started to fall on her friend's face. Nothing could make her more miserable, but Blake had a peaceful smile on her face.

"Weiss, don't be sad. This is what I want. Just do it."

Weiss started to put her weight on her blade, and felt it start to pierce her friend's flesh. Blake gave a small grunt, then let out a breath as Myrtenaster made its way through her ribcage. Weiss was barely able to keep her grip on the blade, the strain of doing this to her friend was too much.

It wasn't long before she passed out.

.

.

.

.

* * *

Author's Note:

This story is a one-shot, pretty short and sweet. As always, tell me what you thought about it. If you saw any problems, tell me, and tell me what you likes as well!

Thanks.


End file.
